


Dead Life, New Life

by Introverted_Cupcake_x



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Animal Death, M/M, This is before season 5, no spellcheck we die like mne, past musings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 05:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12857418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Introverted_Cupcake_x/pseuds/Introverted_Cupcake_x
Summary: Living with the Paladins, Lotor learns a thing or two about being wanted thanks to Lance and the odd animal known locally as 'Kaltenecker.'





	Dead Life, New Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to Catch'n'Release, since some of you wanted to see more. :D
> 
> Unfortunately, this was done late at night so I wasn't at my best, but I really wanted to post this before I lose the ideas from my mind forever.
> 
> Enjoy, and thanks!

“LANCE!!!”

The cuban jerked to his senses and quickly hopped out of bed and charged to the door to open it, seeing his entire team standing outside. Allura looked panicked.

“K-K-Kaltenecker is in pain! I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”

Stunned realisation hit Lance. Out of everyone, he’s the only one who is knowledgeable when it comes to cows - but oh god what if something bad is happening and he can’t help? Of course, his afternoon nap being interrupted is bad enough already, but now he has the entire team to worry about, including Lotor who unceremoniously joined the team after being branded the galaxy’s biggest traitor by his own father. The prince himself noticed the paladins running down the corridor at breakneck speed and watched on in curiosity before deciding to bother them by following.

The castle is vast, and rather impressive - not that he’d admit it - but still he gets lost. He finds his way around eventually mainly by following people or asking them in a polite tone of voice to test their patience with him. For someone who’s been raised as a prince his whole life, he’s rather… crap at having a sense of direction with assistance from a computer.

“Now who is this Kaltenecker?” he wondered out loud. A relative, perhaps? A valuable weapon?

No, he found out as he snuck into the room where the cow was being kept, mooing and pawing the ground uncomfortably. Lance broke from the group and held her face, whispering something. While he spoke, Lotor approached Allura, looking rather underwhelmed.

“What… is that creature?”

The princess stared ahead, unsure herself. “Lance says that she’s a ‘cow’ and she’s actually native to Planet Earth where he came from.”

“Oh…” Lotor murmured, curiosity still not satisfied. They all watched on as Lance’s hand suddenly flew to his mouth as his eyes grew large. He turned to the group, looking pale.

“Uh, Pidge… did that alien dude ever tell us how long he had Kaltenecker at that shop?”

The green paladin shook her head, hurrying over to pat the cow’s head. “No. Why?”

“Y’see…” Lance gulped, messing up his own hair, “well, Kaltenecker is a girl, and cows only give out milk when… oh god why haven’t I noticed this before…”

It was starting to play on Allura’s nerves, as if they weren’t shaken enough as it is without seeing some discharge coming from the cow’s rear end earlier. Her outburst startled Lotor:

“What?! What is it? Tell us, and we’ll prep the healing pods up straight away!”

Lance laughed hollowly as if unsure whether to sound surprised or bitter, only reminding himself that she doesn’t know about a cow’s physiology. Meanwhile, Shiro tried to think what’s going on when he suddenly realised too what Lance was thinking.

“Kaltenecker is pregnant. Was. She’s going to give birth.”

That came as a metaphorical slap more powerful than Voltron itself. Hunk let out a scream that simultaneously shocked and impressed Lotor with his vocal range. Do these Paladins scream like this all the time?

“OH GOD NO WHY???”

“DON’T ASK WHY!” Pidge yelled, eyes wide, “SHE’S A GIRL, OF COURSE SHE CAN GET PREGNANT!”

“SHUT UP!” Lance suddenly snapped and the group silenced. A fire lit in his eyes and he rolled his sleeves up. “If you keep yelling, you’ll stress out Kaltenecker and she’ll only have a miscarriage! Stress can kill her too!” Lotor watched, analysing the switch in Lance’s behaviour.

“Wh- so what now?” Allura asked quickly.

“This is nothing that a healing pod can do,” Lance said quietly, patting the cow’s head and she let out a pitiful moo, “she has to give birth. And from the look of things…” he patted her side and gulped, “it’s going to be a difficult birth. I’m going to need the longest pair of gloves you guys can find, lots of towels, a mop and disinfectant, and… and… most importantly, some peace and quiet.” The others murmured among themselves, but Lance snapped again. “Now!” They all scrambled into action except for Lotor who stood there watching the chaos unfold with a hum. He walked over to Lance.

“Have you done this before?” he asked. Lance shook his head. Despite the instruction-giving earlier, his skin looked clammy. He almost looked ready to keel over and die. The half-Galran stood closer and touched his shoulder, snapping him out of some trance. “You seem to know how to do it.”

“Y-yeah, but knowing something is different from actually doing it,” he argued weakly, “if I mess this up, we could lose both Kaltenecker AND the calf.”

“Calf?”

“A baby cow.”

“Ah.”

Kaltenecker moved about uncomfortably, lying down before getting up again. Lance remembered something.

“L-Lotor, help me push those bales of grass over and spread them across this spot here! We need to make her as comfortable as possible,” he ordered and began ripping the dry grass apart from a huge bale, dropping them to the floor. The fugitive did as he was told, taking out bigger chunks and nudging some across the floor too. The cow moved onto the soft bed and seemed to moo in satisfaction, but the discharge still flowed.

“Is that where…”

“Yeah,” Lance murmured and glanced at the doors. “Where ARE they? I can’t do this without wearing gloves, otherwise…” Lotor still felt clueless.

“Otherwise… what?”

“I don’t want to put my arm in there and accidentally give her any infections,” the young man explained, “cows are REALLY hardy creatures, but a birthing heifer is at most risk from illnesses during the birth… oh fuck it!” he suddenly spat and lifted his shirt, taking it off completely. Lotor stared, not noticing how warm his cheeks grew.

“Uh… what are you doing?”

“Okay, don’t be grossed out or anything, but…” the blue paladin took a very deep breath and flexed his fingers. “On Earth, we have to help cows when they’re having difficulty, and this looks like it’s definitely Kaltenecker’s first birth. Seriously, where the hell are those guys? Why won’t they be around when I need them the most?”

Luckily nearby there is a water trough where Lance saw it and dipped his whole arm in.

During the conversations earlier, Lotor noticed something else about Lance. When he explains things to him, he sounded calmer. He’d make a good teacher for young ones, one day. An idea came to him.

“Lance, could you possibly explain how this birthing works while you help the ‘calf’ out?” he spoke up. It seemed to work because straight away, Lance went into auto-pilot mode.

“Okay, so without a glove I’m screwed because I didn’t want my arm to be covered in blood and fluids and that, but time is of the essence, so…” He coughed and patted Kaltenecker’s neck. “Hey, girl, I’m just about to put my hand in so that I can help pull your calf out, okay? So, like this…” He began to insert his hand into the cow’s vagina, carefully pushing it in until he was almost up to his shoulder. His face winced and Lotor doesn’t know whether to be fascinated or sick. “Yeah, gross, but it’s necessary! Anyway, you just feel around to see what situation the calf is in. We do this if we think it’s going to be an easy or difficult birth. And… oh thank god,” he uttered under his breath as he felt around. “I can feel it. But it’s facing the wrong way.”

“So… what happens now?”

“You just gotta… push it over a bit, reposition it…” he murmured as he did just that, feeling the mass inside Kaltenecker being shifted with his movement, “...And… there.”

Suddenly the cow groaned and kicked about, almost stomping on Lance’s foot and he stumbled back. As he did that his arm withdrew from the vagina and it dripped with fluids. Lotor tensed, ready to help in case the beast decided to turn against her master, but Lance waved at him dismissively.

“I got this,” he whispered. “Hey, it’s okay, you’re just having the contractions. You should be okay from here on out. You want it to be a natural birth? Okay, just go on ahead, and I’ll be here.” He looked sad as he stepped back until he stood next to the half-Galran traitor.

“What now?” he asked.

“We wait,” Lance sighed, “I don’t want to interfer in case it stresses her out. Miscarriages are the worst things in the world.”

“You believe so?”

“Yeah. It’s worse for the mom.”

Lotor shifted uncomfortably. “Even if you eventually become a traitor to your father’s empire?”

Lance’s head whipped to face him in shock.

“You… lost a sibling?”

“No. They lost me. But then they revived me with Quintessence,” Lotor said softly, watching Kaltenecker. “And now I can feel it’s effects giving me the immortality that I didn’t know would be so valuable to me. Now I’m an outcast. I might as well have been aborted from how they treated me.”

“That’s not true!” the paladin burst out but remembered to keep quiet, “just because your parents didn’t want you eventually doesn’t mean that nobody else will!”

“I lost my team and I lost my family. All I could do is… pft - trick you all into thinking I’m an ally when I might just turn against you eventually,” he rolled his eyes. He thought that Lance would run and alert his team, but he didn’t seem to care about that.

“I’ll still be your ally,” he murmured, not looking at him, “I mean, if that stuff about your father is true, and the Quintessence has corrupted him somehow, then…! We’ll just beat it out of him and make him see sense.” Lotor snickered and the paladin stared at him. “What?”

“You’ll be squashed like a buglet if you tried taking him on yourself.”

“Y-you know what I mean!”

“But Lance…” Lotor breathed and stepped closer to him, resting his hand on his bare, non-bloody shoulder, “I appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.”

Blue eyes stared back at him and heat rose in his face. He laughed it off nervously.

“Glad that cheered ya up!”

Lotor chuckled and leaned in. Lance’s heart missed a beat as he whispered; “You still owe me for that little jailbreak. What will you do to repay me?”

“U-u-u-u-u-uh…” the reddened blue paladin gulped, unable to move, and glanced at Kaltenecker just as a calf left the vaginal cavity and he drew in the longest breath ever in awe, almost tearing up. Lotor looked on in surprise at the quickness of the birth.

“Oh god, she did it!” he whispered excitedly and walked towards the cow and patted her head, hearing her take deep breaths. “Kaltenecker, you queen! You absolute winner! You did very well! Oh, I’m so proud of you! I-I could just cry!” In fact, he did cry a little.

At that moment, the rest of his team ran into the room armed with supplies, but paused when they saw that the birth was over. Hunk passed out after seeing the amount of blood on the floor, so Shiro had to carry him out while Allura and Pidge both aww’ed and went over to congratulate Kaltenecker, handing a towel to Lance who reached over to rub the fluids off the calf.

“It’s so cute!” Allura gushed, “don’t you agree, Pidge?”

“I’m not a fan of babies, but it is,” she agreed. “Whatcha gonna name it? ...Lance?”

But Lance said nothing as he stopped rubbing the calf’s body, tears stopping. Lotor frowned and kneeled beside him. “Lance, what’s wrong?” They noticed how shallow his breath has become, appearing to be the starting stage of a panic attack.

“It… it sto… no…” he breathed and looked at the calf’s face, pushing his fingers into it’s nostrils to dig out the amniotic fluids. Allura and Pidge watched on in shock as he placed his hand on the chest area of the calf and he shook his head, squeezing his eyes tightly and a silent sob trapped in his throat. Lotor quickly stood up.

“You two should leave,” he murmured to the girls as they understood with immense sadness. Allura put her arm around Pidge and they left the room, glancing back at Lance who has hunched over with fat tears running down his face.

He said nothing even when Lotor dipped to his knees to hesitantly put his arm around him.

“Has he passed away?” he asked gently, looking at the calf’s unresponsive face. Lance nodded with a sob, looking away. “I’m sorry.”

Lance continued to cry, trying to compose himself but failing. Strange sadness tugged at Lotor’s heartstrings as he thought of the rare moments in his early life where Honerva would hum a melody to him whenever he was upset about anything - whether it’s being teased by other children or tripping over and getting a cut on his knee. Before he knew it, humming thrummed in his throat and Lance leaned his head on his shoulder, still sniffling but doing or saying nothing to stop the banished prince.

It was a while later when Lance eventually calmed down enough to let Kaltenecker sniff the calf. She seemed to understand that the calf was never going to wake up again by the mournful noise in her moo, and started to shuffled about again on the makeshift bed. Lotor watched as Lance wrapped the deceased in one of the large towels that Hunk dropped, readying for it to be sent away.

“That should do it,” his hoarse voice rasped. He had cleaned his arm with the disinfectant that Pidge found, but he hasn’t put his shirt on back yet, unaware that the cold was starting to prickle his skin. “Allura may know a place where we can cremate Nova.”

“Nova?” Lotor murmured.

“I named this calf as soon as she came out of her mother,” he explained, “I can’t believe this… I broke rule number one the second I saw how beautiful the calf was.”

“And that is…?”

“Never name a farm animal,” Lance sighed, “you get attached when you name them. I was so prepared to raise Nova, but then it made me forget that these things happen.”

“Names form an attachment, huh…” Lotor muttered thoughtfully and watched Lance walking towards the exit. “Lance, wait.”

“What?” he said tiredly, looking at him with the face of someone who hasn’t slept for days on end.

“Should we stay with Kaltenecker for tonight?” he suggested. “Surely she will be mourning the loss of her calf too?”

“I don’t know if I want to,” the blue paladin said weakly, “not after I failed her.”

“Goodness, Lance, that’s just not true!” Lotor softly argued and stepped close to him, “you did so much to make her feel comfortable. A calf dying is not a wasted effort - it’s not just the calf you’re looking after, but a cow as well! She has suffered more than you have, but it doesn’t mean you can deny her any comfort in this sad time just because something happened that might very well have been beyond your control.”

Lance simply stared at him, soaking up the words but not quite registering them. All he’s hearing is a lot of babble on how effort is more important than results.

“I don’t get it - why are you being so nice,” he uttered, feeling angry. The weight of the dead calf started to hurt his arms. “Sometimes you just… ugh!” He grunted and stormed out the room, leaving Lotor on his own and sighed.

…

Much later while Lotor did some sword practice in the training room (he admits that he wished that he had holographic training simulators too) the door hissed open and he noticed to his surprise that Lance entered, looking strange.

“Hey, Lotor? Can we talk?”

Ending the training, Lotor sheathed his blade and approached the paladin with some hope. “Yes? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just…” Lance begun, struggling to find words. “Thanks. For helping me. And I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

That confused the banished prince.

“But why do you feel like this now?”

“Because…” Lance sighed, “do you ever know what it’s like growing up trying your hardest to be recognised by your peers and then being brushed off as a clown?”

“I admit that I do not,” Lotor answered, scrutinising the boy’s expression, “my peers will have no choice seeing as anyone who hurts me get punished with imprisonment or death.”

“Then it’s no,” the paladin bit his lip, “basically, imagine doing some really hard work and never being acknowledged for it and only having people look at your negative qualities.”

“I would be…” the prince thought deeply, “...very angry. Furious.”

“Yeah, then it means you’re putting in extra work and…”

“Still being dismissed?” Lotor finished. Lance nodded.

“I did what I could back there with Kaltenecker. I secretly wished I could be a vet - an animal doctor - but then I saw the opportunity to go travel into space as a cadet and I just couldn’t resist it so I put my first dream on hold,” Lance explained, starting to look bad, “Hunk wanted to be a chef, but I’m always dragging him into other stuff… oh boy, that’s another anxiety-inducing thought to ruminate over…” Lotor coughed softly and the paladin quickly spoke again. “Right! The point! I WANT to believe that I worked as hard as I did to try to save the calf, but no matter how many times people will tell me, I won’t believe it! I achieved something amazing, but I still feel like crap!”

“Sounds to me like you’re still processing what happened,” the prince commented before walking past Lance and held his arm out. “Take my arm. Let’s go see Kaltenecker and we’ll talk there.”

Stunned, Lance just numbly put his hand on the crook of his arm.

“Like I said - I suppose you have a hard time processing things,” Lotor elaborated as they began to walk down the corridor. “Very much like grief, I believe. In fact, I believe that you’re suffering from grief because you adore Kaltenecker.”

“Yeah!” Lance murmured, “my family has some pets back home. I miss being woken up by the dogs, even if they wake me up on weekends…”

“You have a caring nature, Lance,” Lotor murmured softly, still being heard above the footsteps. “That’s your strength and weakness. At the same time, it’s beautiful that you have such care for lesser creatures, even when they provide you with no benefit.”

“Kaltenecker doesn’t have to have a reason to live,” Lance frowned, “all she knows is that grass is tasty and she gets back rubs from me. Every being CAN live without some ultimate end goal, y’know.”

“Right, right…” Lotor nodded, uncertain. Awkward seconds passed and Lance’s hand on his arm started to become deadweight. 

“...Hey, this might sound rude, but… why don’t your parents love you?” Lance asked curiously.

A few feet of walking later and stopping outside Kaltenecker’s room, Lotor smiled sardonically.

“To produce an heir for the empire, of course. It may have been sometime before my father went… ‘bat-shit crazy’ but he was a traditionalist. He may have made it legal for Daibazalians to enter mixed-race marriages, but he knows that to continue to family name he’ll need heirs. Fortunately, he married someone he loved. Unfortunately, his love gave birth to a stillborn.”

Lance stared at him in shock. “Wait, you were dead?”

“Yes… of course, I only knew about that from my caretaker, but I did not know what my parents felt when they discovered I had no heartbeats,” he turned his eyes to Lance’s wide ones, talking lowly. “But if they behaved like you did when Nova was born… then I have no words. If they hadn’t turned against me recently, I would’ve cried that they cared enough to mourn a stillborn.”

“I… I would’ve cried if anyone died no matter how old they are,” the paladin said.

“You would mourn for me?”

“Well, yeah! You’re not a bad guy like everyone thinks!” Lance burst. “Okay, you have a questionable past, but you changed!”

Lotor suddenly chuckled. “Oh Lance… Please stop attracting me with your naivety.”

“I-I’m not!” he shrieked, going red. “I mean it! If you just dropped dead right here and now, I’d be REALLY upset!”

“Pft! Just ‘upset?’”

“Agh! You know what I mean! I’d be inconsolable!”

Lotor still laughed and Lance nudged his arm with a huff. “Jerk.”

“Call me names all you like - I’ll still keep that offer open for you.”

“Uh? Offer?”

Lotor smirked; “To become my consort. Should peace come to the galaxies, be it under my control or free of any, then you may become my consort.”

“A-ah…” Lance stuttered, remembering. “You DID mention something like that…”

Lotor enjoyed his flustered reaction, moving to open the door to Kaltenecker’s room. “Come. Let’s go grace Kaltenecker with our presence and discuss our future together with her blessing.”

“Nu-uh! We ain’t getting married!” Lance spluttered, storming inside with him. “I’m saving myself for someone I’ll love very, very much!”

“Of course!” Lotor chuckled, “but I’ll always be available to hold you when you need a loving embrace.”

“I think I’ll pass on… huh?” Lance suddenly stopped, staring ahead of him as he and Lotor paused to look at Kaltenecker contently eating some hay while a calf suckled from one of her teats.

“Wha…” Lotor gasped, “do cows reproduce asexually?”

“No way…” Lance breathed and slowly approached Kaltenecker, who gave him a happy mooing noise and he stroked her face. “Kaltie, you had twins?”

‘Moo!’

More fresh tears sprung from Lance’s eyes, except this time they were from happiness. He hugged her. “I’m so sorry for Nova’s death! From now on, I’ll make sure nothing happens to you or Lancelot!”

Lotor stared at him before looking at the young calf, which was white with creamy markings rather than the black marks of the mother. “Lancelot?”

“Yes…” the paladin sniffled, wiping his eyes, “Lancelot was my nickname back home, so I’ll pass it onto this brave warrior right here!” he kneeled down and petted the calf, who made a disagreeing noise and went back to drinking the mother’s milk.

Seeing his smile warmed Lotor’s heart. His noticeable heartbeat surprised him, but all he knows is that he really hopes that Lance will consider his offer and become his consort.


End file.
